My hands are dry, my hair is scary, daytime basic cable is iffy, I'd really like some chocolate...but my house sure smells fine! I sautéed all of the 3lb bag of onions except one. I have pea soup with pork hocks, carrots and onions simmering. By the time I finish my carrot soup I should have enough to TAKE to the soup kitchen.

I cancelled my reservation at Knox for lunch because I was tending my soups and didn't feel like walking to the church. I'll go next week. So lunch was a fried egg on a toasted english muffin and even without ketchup it was ok. Still don't like the taste of margarine and in retrospect I would have left out some other item and bought butter. At the time that just seemed like a crazy thing to do. Now? I also boiled three eggs for another meal or a snack. That made me smile, thinking of stretching my eggs out for a week. Brad often told me of their experiences when he and Pat lived in Chicago during Brad's internship at Michael Reese. One week all they had to eat...period...were eggs. A patient had brought him in a tray of eggs and they had nothing else. During that year he also donated plasma once a week because they paid him $15, gave him an hour's rest in a recliner and served him juice and cookies! Puts a new perspective on 'blood money.' We all have stories.

Joanne was first out of the gate with a dinner invitation although it's for tomorrow. My challenge for today "Allow a friend to buy you lunch or dinner" didn't specify that it HAD to be today. The invitation came in today so I'm going to count it.

A friend called today with some information about medical trips to Winnipeg. First of all he gets WAY better mileage than I do, but the point he was making was that because his gas is cheap, he can volunteer to drive someone to the city for the cost of the gas and maybe a stop at A&W. He also confirmed what I had heard, that there are those who drive folks to their medical appointment in the city in exchange for the travel grant cheque. As someone on here mentioned, the challenge there is that the cheque will surely be 6-8 weeks coming. I have a call in to Ontario Works to question the "third party" aspect of the travel grant application. I know there's a section that relates to an agency or social assistance and I'm sort of remembering that they would provide travel costs up front for clients of their office. I'll clarify that when I get a call back.

As I stated in my profile, I expected my biggest challenge would be mobility. I've revised that to mobility and boredom. There are many times when my car doesn't move for days, but that's my decision. At least I know that I CAN go somewhere, anywhere, and see anyone. I have a friend who's sort of housebound this week and I considered driving out for a visit. I would have run over to Safeway to buy a couple of STALKS of celery for my soup! What an irresponsible use of resources is that...driving .5 km for two stalks of celery. But I do that, or at least I used to.

I'm finding it interesting that I should feel bored. Even the times when I don't leave the house for several days, I seem to be busy. And that busyness is still here, inside this house, and I could be doing the same stuff I always do. But this project has put me in a different headspace. I look around at the things that would normally hold my attention and realize that in all likelihood those same options wouldn't exist for me if I were truly impoverished. Butterflies, particularly Monarchs are one of my interests/hobbies/passions. If I were actually on assistance I wouldn't have unlimited internet time to read and research them; wouldn't have a dozen books to refer to, wouldn't have the possibility of planning another summer of projects and seminars. As the M&N reporter noted, "there's more to being poor than being broke."